It’s been a chaotic time in local media rights for Major League Baseball teams.
As the aftermath of Diamond Sports Group’s emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy continues to unfold, MLB is taking steps to make franchises that have taken cuts to their local media rights fees whole. According to Evan Drellich of The Athletic, MLB franchises that are receiving the “media disruption distribution” that the league and union agreed to earlier this year were notified on Monday.
Today is the day MLB planned to notify teams if they’re getting the new “media disruption distribution.” That’s up to $15 million per team which saw a TV rights fee cut between 2022-24. (But it doesn’t include teams with cuts for first the time in 2025) https://t.co/GPhtpiGE6x
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) December 10, 2024
The additional revenue sharing will be awarded to teams who had their local media rights fees cut between the years 2022 and 2024, meaning no teams that will be taking a cut for the first time in 2025 are included (though this new revenue distribution could be revisited next year). Qualifying teams can receive up to $15 million from the league, though the total amount set to be distributed is no more than $75 million.
Teams known to qualify for the distribution are the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers.
The money, as per the agreement between the league and MLBPA, will come from the pool of luxury tax charges collected from teams with payrolls above the league’s stated threshold.
It’s unclear whether the distribution will cover the entirety of lost media revenue for the receiving teams, though given the amount of qualifying teams and only $75 million in distributions, that seems unlikely.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.